Courtesy of an offensive line that run-blocks as well as it pass protects, Brandon Jacobs has found lots of room to operate this year. Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images .

Breaking down Sunday's New York Giants at Pittsburgh Steelers game (4:15 p.m., Eastern, Fox) ...

Four Things You Should Care About

1. Just how good are the Giants? I'll tell you around 7:15 ET on Sunday. OK, so it's not exactly something to "care about," per se, but it's something you should certainly consider before thinking too hard about this game.

This Bergen Record headline from Wednesday tells the story: Hard Part of Giants' Schedule Begins. In other words, let's take New York's NFC-best 5-1 record with an enormous grain of salt. What good team have they beaten besides an erratic Redskins squad that was just getting its sea legs on Sept. 4?

They roughed up St. Louis, but who hasn't? Also, they barely edged Cincinnati in overtime; they locked down Charlie Frye and the Seahawks -- whoopee!; and they hung tight against a miserable 49ers team. San Francisco was within two points in the fourth quarter despite two turnovers in the Giants' red zone. (And those two J.T. O'Sullivan picks? My great aunt Dorothy could have made those.)

Then there's the great Cleveland debacle. Giants fans had an easy time shrugging that one off. Heck, New York had won its last eight games; it had to lose eventually. But come on. The Giants breathed life into a corpse that evening. The same Browns squad (plus Kellen Winslow) got absolutely molly-whopped by Washington six days later.

Now come the hard ones. New York still has five division games remaining -- all but two of them on the road. It also has Pittsburgh away this week, plus playoff hopefuls Baltimore, Arizona, Carolina and -- accent on the hopeful -- Minnesota.

And if you're doubting a Tom Coughlin-coached team's propensity for or ability to collapse, just look back two years to 2006. That team started 6-2 before finishing just 2-6.

And with that setup, we move on to the game itself.

2. The unit to watch here: New York's offensive line. These hogs are counted on to do two things and they are doing them sublimely in '08: One, give Eli Manning enough time to work, because we all know, with the rare exception of Super Bowl XLII, how he behaves under pressure; and two, give the massive Brandon Jacobs a little room to maneuver.

So far Manning has been sacked just six times, which is second-fewest among regular starters. That's much better protection than he's ever had (one sack a game in '08 compared to a career average of 1.7), and his passing stats reflect it. His completion percentage is more than five points over his career average and his passer rating is up 15.

As for Jacobs, the Giants' improved line has allowed the 6-foot-4, 264-pound beast to evolve into more than just a point-and-shoot battering ram. Surprisingly, he's pretty nimble at the line of scrimmage, and this year he's managed to pick and choose a little more than usual. And when he hits the open field: Buh-bye.

Against San Francisco last week, Jacobs flashed that brilliance on a first-quarter run between the right tackle and guard. On the play, 317-pound guard Chris Snee got downfield to make an excellent driving block that took middle linebacker Patrick Willis out of the picture (Rich Seubert executed likewise on the opposite side); and both right tackle Kareem McKenzie and tight end Kevin Boss planted defenders on their butts at the line of scrimmage. As a result, Jacobs danced through the line without even a finger being laid upon him en route to a 24-yard score that skirted the right sideline.

Will Pittsburgh's superb linebackers be such pushovers? Doubt it.

3. The Plaxico Effect. Let us count the possible story angles involving Burress.

This is his first visit to Heinz Field since leaving Pittsburgh on not-so-good terms four years ago. Granted, Plax might not recognize many faces on this roster -- or on the staff, for that matter -- but a decidedly unchanged Pittsburgh fan base will surely be in his ear all day. Then there's the lingering effect of a suspension levied just three weeks ago. (Burress has caught only seven balls over the two games since and was spotted sparring with coach Coughlin on the sidelines last week; fine pending.) And there's the damaged little finger on his right hand, which Burress has played coy about, to say nothing of the shoulder and neck pain that forced him to miss two practices this week.